15 Things You Never Knew About Your Clitoris

For all the centuries of men wondering what women want, the answer isn't all that mysterious. We want you to touch our clitorises. The success of a sexual encounter may hinge entirely on how (and whether) it is touched, but don't put too much pressure on your partner's understanding of this special body part. If you don't know what it's capable of, how can they? Study up with these fascinating facts.

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1. Two separate Italian academics both claimed to discover the clitoris in the 1550s. Anatomy experts Realdo Colombo and Gabriele Falloppio (yep, of Fallopian-tube fame) fought over who first made note of the clitoris. Presumably, women had already found their body parts and their affects far before the Renaissance.

2. Etymologists aren't sure where the word comes from. The spelling suggests it came from Greek, but beyond that, the root has several possibilities. The Online Etymology Dictionary wonders if it came from kleiein, meaning "to sheathe," or klitys meaning "side of the hill," or kleis meaning "key," or kleitoriazein meaning "to tickle." They all seem pretty appropriate, right?

3. Scientists didn't determine the anatomy of the clitoris until 2009. While those Italian scientists noted it over 400 years ago, it wasn't until this decade that biologists even cared to create a full, 3-D diagram of the clitoris. Obviously, there's a gender bias in scientific studies, but you'd think that information would have benefited everyone.

4. It turns out that the majority of your clitoris is internal. While the little nub is external, around 75 percent of the glans reaches inside your body and continues into your pelvis. Like a beautiful, incredibly powerful iceberg!

6. It grows as you age. The clitoris and vulva begin to enlarge around middle school, and the clitoris keeps growing and changing as you get older, particularly around hormonal changes such as pregnancy or menopause.

7. Once inside your body, the clitoris branches into two legs. They're called crura, and they extend around three inches downward around your vaginal walls. Yes, that little tiny thing has three-inch legs!

8. The clitoris has double the number of nerve endings as the whole penis. You may have seen this number thrown around a lot, but that's because it's so impressive: The clitoris has 8,000 nerve endings in its tiny surface area, while the penis has around 4,000 on the whole thing (including head and shaft). For comparison, the finger tips have around 2,500 receptors per square centimeter.

9. The clitoris and penis start out the same in utero. The "genital tubercle" develops into either one or the other between weeks four and nine of gestation, though they won't be visible on a sonogram until week 20 or so.

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10. Anatomically, clitorises and penises are very similar. They are both vascular structures (or glans) featuring a shaft protected by a hood. Both become engorged with blood when the person is sexually aroused.

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11. Your clitoris gets even bigger and harder right when you're about to come, just like a penis does. Blame that glorious rush of blood to the area.

12. Clitoral unhooding is a type of plastic surgery. If a woman feels her vulva's lips or clitoral hood is getting in the way of her pleasure (literally), there's a surgery for that.

13. All female mammals have clitorises. That includes dolphins, tigers, bats, mice, moles, walruses, cats, dogs, and so much more. A blue whale's clitoris can be up to three feet long! As the largest mammal, they also get to have the largest clitorises.

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14. Research suggests all female orgasms are clitoral. Dr. Odile Buisson and Dr. Pierre Foldès, the biologists who determined the clitoris' anatomy in 2009, also suggested that since the erectile tissue of the clitoris surrounds the vagina, all female orgasms might originate from its stimulation. So while your friends might debate who can only have a clit orgasm and who has a vaginal one, they're probably all starting from the magic button.

15. One study suggests that your orgasm depends on the distance between your clitoris and vagina. In the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Dr. Kim Wallen presented research that suggested women whose clitorises were further away from their vaginal openings had a more difficult time reaching climax than women whose were closer.

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